Long trumpets of northern Nigeria - in history and today
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v6i2.1116Abstract
A visitor arriving at Kano International Airport in northern Nigeria on the same flight as a local V.I.P. may find himself greeted by a blast on an instrument which, at first sight, suggests an elongated European hunting horn or that used by postillions of eighteenth century stage-coaches. It may remind him of the long, straight trumpet in Giotto’s Crowning of the Virgin (ca. 1317) or of the instruments on the medallion from Guerrero Lovillo’s Cantigas de Santa Maria on the sleeve of H.M.V.’s “Early Medieval Music”. Of the quotations at the head of this article the second would seem an appropriate description, but in fact refers to a Chinese trumpet of the later middle ages. It is the first which records the earliest sighting of a Nigerian long trumpet by a British explorer, the ill-fated Oudney, in a letter home on 28th March 1823. The starting point for any enquiry is to discover the link between present day Nigerian and medieval Chinese or European trumpets and to investigate what happened to those made of wood.References
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• (Al) Omari (Yahya) n.d. (1342-8) Masalik el Absar fi Mamalik el Amsar, French translation Gaudefroy-Demom- bynes, Paris, Libraire Orientaliste, Paul Guenther 1927.
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• 1913 Hausa superstitions and customs, London, John Bale, Sons and Daniellson.
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• Alexander, B. 1908 From the Niger to the Nile, London, Edward Arnold.
• Allen, W. and Thomson, T.R.H. 1848 A narrative of the expedition sent by Her Majesty's Government to the River Niger in 1841 under the command of Captain H.D. Trotter, R.N., London, Richard Bentley. Reprinted Cass, London 1968.
• This reference contains 2 citations:
o Ames, D.W. 1968a Hausa music I: Record notes to UNESCO-Bärenreiter BM30 L.2306.
o b "Professionals and amateurs: the musicians of Zaria and Obimo", African Arts 1: 40-45, 80, 82-4.
• Ames, D.W. 1969 Hausa music II: record notes to UNESCO-Bärenreiter BM30 L.2307.
• Ames, D.W. 1973 "A socio-cultural view of Hausa musical activity" in (Ed) W.L.D'Azevedo The traditional artist in African societies: 128-161. Bloomington and London, Indiana Univ. Press.
• Ames, D.W., Gregersen, E.A. and Neugebauer, T. 1971 "Taaken Samarii: a drum language of Hausa youth", Africa 41:12-31.
• Ames, D.W. and King, A.V. 1971 Glossary of Hausa music and its social contexts, Evanston, Northwestern Univ. Press.
• Arnold, T. and Guillaume, A. (Eds) 1960 (1931) The legacy of Islam, London, Oxford University Press.
• Barth, H. 1857 Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa, London, Longmans, Green. Reprinted Cass, London, 3-volume centenary edition 1967.
• Besmer, F.E. 1974 Kidan Daran Salla; Music for the eve of the Muslim festivals of Id al-Fitr and Id al-Kabir in Kano, Nigeria, Bloomington, African Studies Program, Indiana University.
• Clapperton, H. 1829 Journal ofa second expedition into the interior of Africa, London, John Murray. Reprinted Cass, London 1966.
• Davies, J.G. 1954-6 The Biu book, Zaria, NORLA, mimeo.
• Day, C.R. 1892 "Music and musical instruments" in A.F.M.Mockler-Ferryman: Up the Niger: 264-281, London, George Philip and Sons.
• Delevoye, Enseigne de Vaisseau 1906 En Afrique Centrale, Paris, Libraire H. le Soudier.
• Denham, D. and Clapperton, H. 1826 Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in E.W.Bovill (Ed): Missions to the Niger, Vols. II, III, IV, London, Cambridge University Press 1966.
• Farmer, H.G. 1939 "Early references to music in the Western Sudan", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1939: 569-579.
• Fletcher, R.S. 1912 Hausa sayings and folklore, with a vocabulary of new words, London, Oxford Univ. Press.
• Frobenius, L. 1913 The voice of Africa, translated R. Blind, New York and London, Benjamin Blom (page references to 1968 re-issue).
• Gervis, P. 1963 Of emirs and pagans, London, Cassell.
• Harris, P.G. 1932 "Notes on drums and musical instruments seen in Sokoto Province, Nigeria", Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 62:105-125.
• Hassan, M.A. and Shuaibu, N. 1952 A chronicle of Abuja, translated F.Heath, Ibadan University Press (Page references to 1962 revised and enlarge edition).
• Hause, H.E. 1948 "Terms for musical instruments in the Sudanic languages: a lexicographical inquiry", Journal of the American Oriental Society LXVIII, Supplement 7.
• Herman-Hodge, H.B. 1929 Gazetteer of Ilorin Province, London, Waterlow.
• Hogben, S.J. and Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. 1966 The Emirates of Northern Nigeria (a preliminary survey of their historical traditions), London, Oxford University Press.
• Hourst, le lieutenant 1898 Sur le Niger et au pays des Touaregs, Paris, Libraire Plon (Page references to the English version: French enterprise in Africa, translated A. Bell, London, Chapman and Hall 1898.
• Hymes, D. 1971 "Sociolinguistics and the ethnography of speaking" in E.Ardener (Ed.): Social anthro- pology and language: 47-93, London, New York, Tavistock Publications.
• 1972 (1964) "Towards ethnographies of communication: the analysis of communicative events" in P.P.Gigliolo (Ed): Language and social context: 21-44, Harmondsworth, Penguin Educ.
• Ibn Battuta n.d. Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354, translated and selected H.A.R.Gibb, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1929.
• Jenkins, J and Olsen, P.R. 1976 Music and musical instruments in the world of Islam, London, World of Islam Festival Publishing Company.
• Jones, A.M. 1959 Studies in African Music, London, Oxford University Press.
• Kati, M. and Ibn-el-Mohtar n.d. (1519-1663) Tarikh el-Fettach, French translation O. Houdas and M. Delafosse 1913-14. Reprinted Libraire d'Amérique et d'Orient, Paris 1964.
• King, A.V. 1964 "Nigerian traditional dances and music", African Notes 1, 2:15-19.
• 1965 "Music tradition in a changing society", Music in Nigeria 1(2): 37-63.
• Krieger, K. 1968 'Musikinstrumente der Hausa", Baessler-Archiv (NF) XVI: 373-429.
• Lander, R.L. 1830 Records of Captain Clapperton's last expedition to Africa, London, Colbourn and Bentley.
• Lander, R. and Lander, J. 1832 The Niger journal of Richard and John Lander, edited and abridged edition R.Hallett, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1965.
• Lenfant, E.A. 1903 Le Niger: voie ouverte d notre empire africain, Paris, Libraire Hachette.
• 1905 La grande route du Chad, Paris, Libraire Hachette.
• Lloyd, P.C. 1961 "Sallah at Ilorin", Nigeria Magazine 70: 266-278.
• Lugard, F.D. (1894) The diaries of Lord Lugard, Vol. IV, (Eds) M.Perham and M.Bull, London, Faber and Faber, 1963.
• Mackay, M. 1950 "The traditional musical instruments of Nigeria", Nigerian Field 15, 3: 112-133.
• Maistre, C. 1895 A travers l'Afrique cen trale du Congo au Niger, 1892-3, Paris, Libraire Hachette.
• Marcuse, S 1964 Musical instruments: a comprehensive dictionary, London, Country Life (References to the 1966 edition).
• 1975 A survey of musical instruments, Newton Abbot, London, David and Charles.
• Mecklenburg, Friedrich, Duke of 1913 From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile, an account of the German Central African Expedition of 1910-11, London, Duckworth.
• Migeod, F.W.H. 1924 Through Nigeria to Lake Chad, London, Heath Cranton.
• 1925 Through British Camerouns, London, Heath Cranton.
• Mischlich, A. 1908 "Uber Sitten und Gebraüche in Hausa", Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen, Jahrgang 11, Afrikanische Studien: 1-81.
• Monteil, P-L. 1896(?) De Saint-Louis à Tripoli par le lac Tch ad, Paris, Ancienne Libraire Germer Baillière.
• Nachtigal, G. 1967 (1879-81) Sahara und Sudan, Graz, Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt.
• Nadel, S.F. 1942 A black Byzantium, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
• Oliver, R. and Fage, J.D. 1962 A short history of Africa, Penguin African Library.
• (Al) Omari (Yahya) n.d. (1342-8) Masalik el Absar fi Mamalik el Amsar, French translation Gaudefroy-Demom- bynes, Paris, Libraire Orientaliste, Paul Guenther 1927.
• Palmer, H.R. (translator) 1908 "The Kano chronicle", Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 38: 58-98.
• Passarge, S. 1895 Adamaua, Geographische Verlagshandlung Dietrich Reimer in Berlin, Berlin.
• Podstavsky, S. n.d. 'The crafts of Roko in the Kebbi community of Argungu", unpublished seminar paper, Centre for Nigerian Cultural Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
• Rohlfs, G. 1875 Quer durch Afrika, Leipzig, F.A.Brockhaus.
• Sachs, C. 1940 The history of musical instruments, London, J.M.Dent.
• Schaeffner, A. 1952 "Timbales et longues trompettes", Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire 14: 1466-1489.
• Schneider, M. 1961 "Tone and Tune in West African music", Ethnomusicology 5, 3: 204-15.
• Schultze, A. 1910 Das Sultanat Bornu, English translation, "The Sultanate of Bornu" by P.A.Benton, London, Cass 1968.
• Seeger, C. 1961 "Semantic, logical and political considerations bearing upon research into ethno- musicology", Ethnomusicology 5, 2: 77-80.
• Smith, M.F. 1954 Baba of Karo: a woman of the Muslim Hausa, London, Faber and Faber.
• Smith, M.G. 1957 "The social functions and meaning of Hausa praise-singing", Africa 27, 1: 26-45.
• Smith, M.G. 1964 "The beginnings of Hausa society" in (Ed) J.Vansina et al: The historian in tropical Africa, London, Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.
• Tremearne, A.J.N. 1912 The tailed head-hunters of Nigeria, London, Seeley, Service and Co.
• 1913 Hausa superstitions and customs, London, John Bale, Sons and Daniellson.
• Zintgraff, E. 1895 Nord-Kamerun, Berlin, Gebrüder Paetel.
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1982-07-07
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“Long Trumpets of Northern Nigeria - in History and Today”. 1982. African Music : Journal of the International Library of African Music 6 (2): 48-72. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v6i2.1116.
